E-commerce Tips: Avoiding the Summer Slump
They say luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Indeed, if you want to pull the lucky ticket and keep the profits high all year round – there is no way around timely adjustments to your marketing strategy, changing the angles to match the seasonal and social trends.
While the final quarter of the fiscal year traditionally sees a spike in trade (thanks, winter holidays), summertime inflicts a revenue decline on many marketers who consider it to be almost inevitable.
Fortunately, any business can avoid the cyclical slumps and even transform them into peaks, should they follow the simple tips covered in this article.
So, let’s jump in!
Adjusting your ad campaign or website according to the calendar involves two main aspects: products, which cover a wide range of merchandise to promote and methods, which you can get creative with and adapt to your particular advertising goals and needs.
Summer clothing isn’t the only hot theme of the season. It’s overpacked with social motives to leverage in your promotion strategy! For most people summer symbolizes a new beginning: a time to rest, recharge, and renew.
It’s vacation season, and people are ready to spend a lot of money.
Weddings are also on the rise during the warm months, and it’s a one-in-a-lifetime experience for the people involved – they are ready to pay top dollar to make the day exceptional. That’s something for marketers to get in on.
People generally pick this time of the year to take a break and get away from the city and its routine, especially on kids’ summer break. With that in mind, imagine a family preparing for a 10-day vacation and you can tell the kinds of products that’ll be flying off the shelves and the kind of stores that the shelves are in.
The only thing left is to find the appropriate offer!
Higher temperatures prompt a specific kind of outdoor activities that require certain equipment. Peddling water sports products in the beginning of the season can be lucrative when the angle is right, providing an opportunity to sell some big ticket items and get a fat payout out of that.
Being out for a long time requires combating weather conditions and other natural hazards, dealing with the danger of heat-strokes, sunburns and insect bites. Luckily, to each of the mentioned problems there is a solution, and there’s no such thing as free sunscreen or mosquito nets.
Camping and hiking is another trend of the summer season, so tents, sleeping bags and gas cookers are highly sought for at the time. Campfires can be another hazardous activity in the summer heat, which is much more safe and enjoyable with modern extinguishers like the “elide fire ball” gaining popularity lately (see gif below).
Speaking of fire, Amazon Prime Day, the year’s biggest online shopping event, is another shot you don’t want to miss looking to breeze through the summer slowdown.
The Methods available to boost conversions in summer mostly refer to the design and content of the creatives you’re hooking a user with, which make up the angle of your campaign in general. This is where you can get really creative, and with a touch of psychology – increase the effectiveness of your ad campaign!
Color affects our mood, and experienced marketers know how to use it to add the desired atmosphere to their visual materials. Numbers, fonts, and their position on a creative also have a significant influence on the consumer’s subconscious, wherein lies the root of decision-making.
So if you want to ensure you’re not missing out on higher volumes simply because of a flaw in content, it’s a good idea to delve into the subject a little more and apply it in practice.
Now, this is only a part of what you can do to avoid seasonal revenue drops, as there’s always an unexplored option to consider. Diverse unconventional tactics, like targeting Australian markets for winter wear or leveraging time zones and week cycles, also work and may very well turn out to be the missing link in a winning strategy.
Like that, the kids will be heading back to school when Autumn arrives to bring on sweater weather and, according to the statistics, most of the year’s engagement cases!
That being said, do your Summer research and don’t forget to split-test. Then, add a pinch of creativity to your concept and enjoy watching the slumps turn into the golden days!
That is a really good tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere.
Short but very accurate information… Thank you for sharing
this one. A must read post!
Thanks for the feedback! :)